Redesigning perceptions for speed and friction
It is hardwired in our DNA to constantly compare. We might think that we have something that works great and fits the needs, but when we discover something better, instantly the previous item is discarded and replaced. With all design constantly trying to be “better”, it would seem difficult for there ever to be a resolved solution.
Perception is a fundamental of great design that is key to interpreting and understanding. As humans, we are accustomed to distorting reality to create new ones for ourselves. When a new update or better product is released, we instantly think of the older versions as “bad” but if we had not known about the new improvements, we would have remained satisfied with our existing products. If we were to continuously design a “better” solution, there would be no end to finding a resolved solution to the problem. Instead, we should be trying to design perceptions.
I was once part of a UX whiteboard challenge when I was with my previous company. One of the problems was called the “Business Passenger”.
It is the future where self-driving cars exist, you have a businessman who travels from New York to Boston for meetings, the whole journey is about 4 hours long. How can you improve on this experience?
There were all sorts of different solutions, but one which seemed crucial over the others was the introduction of high-speed WiFi in the car. It is simple and easy to incorporate quickly with minimum effort but also carries a high impact for the end-user. If you think about it, these days, all train companies are spending huge amounts of money to improve the journey duration. For example, Eurostar spent £6 billion to reduce the travel time between Paris and London by about 45 minutes. However, if you were to think about the times you had travelled somewhere; whether it is via train, plane or bus, the time seems to go by a lot quicker because you are preoccupied with checking your emails, calls, videos, etc. The takeaway here is simple — by including WiFi (which would cost significantly less than £6 billion), we have changed the perception of time.
Weeks ago, I had watched an Awwwards talk by Google which discussed the topic of designing for speed and friction. In this context, speed refers to how technically fast an experience is, minimal code and optimised images are two examples. Friction on the other hand are obstacles that slows down the user.
One of the key examples were airports. Airports are designed in a specific way to influence human behaviour. For example, signs indicating walking minutes as opposed to distance are intentional to encourage travellers to shop more. Think about it — if you need to estimate your own travel time to the gate, you would leave earlier to be on the safe side. However, if a sign tells you that you are 10 minutes away from your gate, you know exactly when you can leave and therefore, you have more time to spend in the shops.
Like many airports, Houston Airport had a huge amount of customer complaints about the waiting time at the baggage belts. More funds and effort were spent on optimising processes but the waiting time was only reduced by 7 minutes.
The problem here is that most customers feel that the wait is too long. It does not matter if it is a short or long haul flight, travelling is tiring and the last thing you need is to spend even more time in an airport waiting on your bags. After awhile, only so much more can be done to optimise processes because there are limits with how fast a machine or human can move.
Reframing the Problem
As suggested by Google’s Senior UX Designer Mustafa Kurtuldu, sometimes, it is important to reframe the problem instead of providing a solution. The root problem here is not the speed of which bags are being delivered and unloaded but rather the waiting time.
Intention and Occupied Time
Think about your last wait at the bus stop or for a train. We are always trying to keep ourselves busy whether it’s checking our social media on our phones, or reading a book.
Fill unoccupied time. Change perceptions — how might we make the user feel like they are not waiting around for their bags? Give them something to do so that time is well spent instead of standing around.
The solution was to land the planes as far away from the baggage belts as possible. The extra waiting time spent walking to the belt is extra time for the bags to be unloaded, and hence, less waiting time for the travellers when they finally arrive at the baggage belts. This goes back to the Business Passenger whiteboard challenge — when we have something to do, we perceive time going by faster than when we are idling.
State of Mind & Body
Another important factor to consider is how one feels at any given place. For example, The Starbucks Experience is a whole concept of having interiors and a human touch to reflect the company’s relaxing, positive and sophisticated ideals. Most interiors are free of clutter and filled with warm lights to give a sense of comfort like you are at home whilst the small touch of adding names onto the cups give an extra personal touch.
Additionally, the intentional use of the same generic wooden furniture throughout out all international branches, juxtaposed with a few elements from the local culture within the brand colour palette is a clever balance of consistency and cultural context. It is a reminder to everyone; you may be in a different shop, or country, but the environment ultimately still belongs to Starbucks. Even if you were a tourist in another country, everything may seem foreign but once you enter a Starbucks store, you would be greeted with the familiar brand and space — how to order, menus, environment.
User Behaviour & Perception
Similar to the Houston Airport example, perception is also about the presentation and execution of design. For example, similar to universal airport signage, navigation should be kept simple and clear for your users. Do not try to re-invent a new button because there are certain practices which we have become accustomed to. Creating a new button for the sake of it looking different would only increase cognitive load and user frustration.
Avoid blank screens. Like the waiting times at the baggage belt where travellers are idling, users do not like blank or spinning screens that give no indication of time. For example, Google images that are still loading have a blur applied to them and only after a user taps on an image do they become fully visible.
Everything on your site contributes to perception from how fast it loads, how easy is information found, how simple is it to use to the visual aesthetics. Unfortunately with the growing developments in technology comes growing human demands. We like things to be fast, simple and easy. Any part of the experience that fails to satisfy the user will add a pain point in the user’s journey.
Takeaways
If you were to think about it, if every product and service were all focused on the same thing — to design a better solution, and we were all to compare each one, we would never have a resolved solution, but rather small changes. It will not necessarily even be improvements because we will always find something “better”. As humans, it is within our innate nature to always compare and demand for more.
After a certain time, everything would seem normal because of the amount of supposedly “better” solutions out there. Therefore, we should be looking to reframe problems and design for better perceptions instead of solutions.
